or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
•
"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
June 13, 2004
Whisk, Whisk, Whisk
...the [CIA], I am gratified to say, took a strong stand against the use of torture in Vietnam.
-- Donald P. Gregg, 30-year veteran of the CIA and national security adviser to George H. W. Bush from 1982 to 1988, June 10, 2004A CIA handbook on coercive interrogation methods, produced 40 years ago during the Vietnam War, shows that techniques such as those used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a long history with U.S. intelligence and were based on research and field experience.
-- Washington Post, June 13, 2004
That Donald Gregg op-ed is actually all about how torture is a bad idea. So this transparently false claim about the CIA and torture in Vietnam is all the more bizarre. Weirder still -- really, to the point of near-insanity -- is that Gregg also states that "Under William Colby's direction, interrogation centers were set up [in Vietnam], under American control, and coercive techniques were forbidden."
Uh... no. No. One of William Colby's main activities in Vietnam was to set up the Phoenix Program. The Phoenix Program involved torture in the same way that opera involves singing.
I guess people like Donald Gregg have to tell these sorts of lies just to keep their heads from blowing up. But it's horrifying that the New York Times lets him do it. It makes me think of this famous section of Brave New World:
"You all remember," said the Controller, in his strong deep voice, "you all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford's: History is bunk. History," he repeated slowly, "is bunk."He waved his hand; and it was as though, with an invisible feather wisk, he had brushed away a little dust, and the dust was Harappa, was Ur of the Chaldees; some spider-webs, and they were Thebes and Babylon and Cnossos and Mycenae. Whisk. Whisk–and where was Odysseus, where was Job, where were Jupiter and Gotama and Jesus? Whisk–and those specks of antique dirt called Athens and Rome, Jerusalem and the Middle Kingdom–all were gone. Whisk–the place where Italy had been was empty. Whisk, the cathedrals; whisk, whisk, King Lear and the Thoughts of Pascal. Whisk, Passion; whisk, Requiem; whisk, Symphony; whisk …
INTERESTING FACT: Donald Gregg's daughter is married to the writer Christopher Buckley, himself the son of William Buckley.
Posted at June 13, 2004 01:22 PM | TrackBackSalut
Posted by: Jenny at November 9, 2004 01:53 PM
